


So Many Things I Want To Say

by kaleidobubble



Series: We'll Live Forever, Knowing Together [1]
Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, I love them so much and they deserved better, Karate Kid III Does Not Exist In This Dojo, Self-Indulgent, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-19 06:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29622045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaleidobubble/pseuds/kaleidobubble
Summary: The night after Chozen’s defeat, Daniel and Kumiko sit down to have a little chat about the past, present, and future.
Relationships: Kumiko/Daniel LaRusso
Series: We'll Live Forever, Knowing Together [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2203194
Comments: 20
Kudos: 24





	So Many Things I Want To Say

The tranquil stillness of a midsummer night hung heavy in the atmosphere as Kumiko carefully sat up in her bed. Alone in the dimly lit room, slivers of moonlight drifted in from the window, dancing across the wooden floorboards.

It’d been well over an hour since everyone had bid goodnight and settled down for the evening, but a wall of stale, stagnant air suffocated the room, even after propping open a window, and peaceful sleep eluded her like a phantom slipping into the shadows.

As she reached up to gather her hair back, her hand brushed unconsciously over the left side of her face, sending a dull, searing ache pulsing through her cheek. 

Kumiko winced, shutting her eyes tight. 

Each time she closed her eyes, an arm seized her from behind, locking around her neck in an iron grip as the cold edge of a blade traced her throat, terror shot like ice through her veins as she struggled against Chozen’s hold.

The repetitive, heavy thud of bodies being thrown down against stone rung deafeningly in her ears, muddled with the sickening crack of fists and elbows landing blows against ribs and jaws, sharp gasps of pain and distant cries of fear, all echoing indistinguishably around her, blood pounding in her temples as she fought to push herself up from the floor.

Hazy as it all was, her mind raced with thoughts of how desperately she didn’t want to die, how much she didn’t want Daniel-san to die. How could things have possibly come to this?

Eyes snapping open again, Kumiko found herself shaking, small tremors wracking her body and her heartbeat thundering loud and clear in her chest. 

She wasn’t going to die. She was very much alive and so was Daniel-san. There was nothing to fear anymore, was there?

And yet, it was clear sleep would not come to her tonight. So...now what?

Taking slow, deep breaths to steady herself, Kumiko turned to gaze out the window. 

Entirely void of the dark, swirling storm clouds and hostile winds of a mere few days before, the night was clear, almost invitingly calm. The vast blanket of darkened sky stretched out towards the sea, and the moon gleamed luminous and whole, accompanied by a handful of scattered stars twinkling distantly overhead. 

Tugging a light coverlet around her shoulders, Kumiko slipped out of bed and padded silently down the hall, minding her footsteps so as not to wake anyone as she found her way to the back door of the garden.

She often did this as a child when she had first moved in with Auntie Yukie. On nights when she felt as though she were drowning in the grief of losing her parents and the pitying stares thrown her way by classmates and people in the market seemed to haunt her at every turn, she would hide out on the porch for hours, sometimes all night, sitting in her auntie’s garden. At times to cry and other times simply to find solace in the quiet while her world came crashing down around her ears.

Stepping out into the night, she pulled the coverlet tighter around herself, finding a slight, unexpected chill lacing the air outside. 

She began making her way down the platform but stopped short when a tall, shadowy figure, hunched over on the edge of the veranda caught her eye in the dark.

Kumiko’s breath caught in her throat and her body went rigid, frozen with fear. 

No one knew what became of Chozen after the O-bon festival. Some had said they’d seen him rise from the platform and run off into the night again, but no one knew for sure. 

Surely he wouldn’t think to show his face again so soon. _Would he?_

He’d proven himself ruthless, relentless, and dangerous. He had no true sense of honor, and now, he had nothing to lose.

Her heart plummeted into her stomach. 

But then the figure shifted, shadows falling from his face, and Kumiko instantly felt her shoulders relax, her anxiety melting away as a breath of relief escaped her.

Daniel-san looked up at her with bright, startled eyes, animated as they always were, though seemingly tinged with a hint of timidness. His expression soft, if a bit weary. 

“Hi, ” she greeted softly.

He blinked at her for a moment. “Hi.” 

A bout of self-consciousness crept over Kumiko in the silence that followed. Perhaps he wanted to be alone. She worried she looked a little silly, standing there shrouded in a blanket like a small child. 

Peering at his face though, she found no judgment. He didn’t seem to notice at all.

Instead, a gentle smile tugged at the corner of his lips. 

“Sorry,” he chuckled, the nervous grin she’d grown so familiar with these past few weeks returning as his hand came up to rub the back of his neck. 

“I couldn’t sleep, so I guess I just came out here to…” Daniel-san’s voice trailed off as his gaze traveled over the garden, still left in utter disarray after the storm.

They’d fixed things up as best they could, setting toppled benches upright and rolling displaced stones back into their proper positions. But most plants had been uprooted and lost to the wind, with fragments and shards of wood and clay still half-buried in the dirt and large sections of stone cracked or missing from the wall. 

All of this could be rebuilt in time, but for now, the world seemed to lay off-kilter in the tentative aftermath of chaos, knowing it was forever changed as it contemplated where to go from here.

Kumiko nodded. “Me too.”

Daniel-san’s smile widened and he motioned to the spot beside him, inviting her to join him.

She accepted, settling down next to him on the platform.

Now with a clear view of him under the moonlight, her eyes couldn’t help but trace the myriad of red and purple bruises peeking from the collar of his t-shirt, trailing up along his neck and face to a bandage taped next to his eye. Underneath, she knew a deep gash cut into his temple where Chozen had struck him in the side of the head. The surrounding skin shone angry and red around his eye, almost mirroring her own. 

Something Kumiko couldn’t place swirled deep within her stomach before blossoming into an exquisite ache in her chest; too hopeful to be strictly guilt or sorrow, too painful to simply be love. 

_Gratitude_ , she decided. 

For him most of all. For all he’s been through and for all he’s done. For his near-reckless bravery, his selflessness, and his heart. 

And for the simple fact that he was here in front of her, alive and breathing, and so was she. That they now had the chance to decide what happened next when, if things had turned out differently, they easily wouldn’t have this choice to make at all.

Kumiko quickly realized she was staring and dropped her gaze, feeling herself flush. But when she met Daniel-san's eyes again, she found he was watching her too, his eyes as careful and contemplative as her own.

“How’s your head?” she asked, breaking their silence.

He gave a halfhearted shrug. “Eh, I’ll survive. It looks worse than it feels.” But his nonchalance faltered slightly when his gaze settled back on her. “How’s your eye?”

“Looks worse than it feels,” she replied simply, cracking a smile she hoped came off as reassuring.

That elicited a small laugh and he nodded, seeming reassured.

Without thinking, Kumiko let her hand drift up to his face, her fingers brushing against his skin. 

He flinched at the contact but didn't pull away.

“Sorry,” she gasped sharply, immediately retracting her hand. A pang of guilt clenched within her, embarrassment coloring her cheeks.

Daniel-san shook his head. “No, it’s...it’s okay.” 

He reached for her hand, gently clasped with his own, and brought it back to him; her palm pressed lightly against his face, his skin cool beneath her touch. The pad of her thumb smoothed across his unbruised cheek as he drew closer. Until she could touch her forehead against his and she felt his breath ghosting across her cheek.

But a crisp breeze rippled through the air just then, tousling her hair and sending an involuntary shiver through them both.

Daniel-san reluctantly dropped her hand, pulling back with a sheepish grin. 

Kumiko giggled, noting the goosebumps rising on his arms and the way he subtly held himself, trying to ward off the chill. “Are you cold?” Feeling a bit bolder now, she shrugged one end of the coverlet from around her shoulders, offering it to him.

“A little,” he laughed, shuffling closer and allowing her to drape it around him so that they were now huddled under the blanket together. “Thanks.”

Kumiko found herself leaning into him, resting her head against his shoulder as his arm wrapped tentatively around her waist, tugging her close. His fingers were still slightly chilled but his embrace was steady and warm. 

And it suddenly occurred to her how much she wanted to keep this for a very long time. 

“Did you like California?” she asked, haltingly. She wasn’t entirely sure why she was asking. “When you moved there?” 

She sensed him tense beside her and few bated heartbeats passed before he answered.

“Not at first, no,” he admitted, finally.

“Why?”

“A few reasons,” he sighed, a somber haze clouding his features. “I guess, a big part of it was that it was all really sudden. It was like my whole life got ripped out from under me y’know?” He swallowed hard, looking down at the floor. “My mom didn’t tell me about it until the last minute, so it was like... my dad was gone and now so were all my friends. And I was in this new place where I didn’t understand the rules and I felt really lost.”

Kumiko nodded slowly, plucking at a loose string at the edge of the blanket. “When my parents died and auntie Yukie took me in, I felt like that. It was like I was a stranger to everyone and I had to start all over again. It was very lonely.” 

She took a shuddery breath, her voice quivering as she murmured, almost inaudibly, “I am afraid to feel like that again.”

As the confession passed her lips, it dawned on her that it wasn’t so much the past she was afraid of, but the future. The fear of starting over loomed over her head with the threat of isolation, of being stranded and alone once more.

An edge of guilt snagged at Kumiko’s heart. She was being ridiculous. This was what she had always wanted, wasn’t it? A chance to follow her dream and go to dance school? 

She had no reason to feel afraid. How could she when being with him made her feel safer than she’s ever felt? How could she explain? She worried he would feel hurt. After all they’d been through, could she not trust him?

Lifting her head from his shoulder, she watched him carefully, holding her breath as she waited for him to say something.

Daniel-san’s eyes widened, seeming to come to a realization of his own, before darkening ever so slightly with thoughtfulness, and then finally settling into resolution. When he dragged his gaze back up to meet her eyes, she found nothing but kindness alight within them.

She knew then, even after everything, he wouldn’t ask her to come. Not if it wasn’t what she wanted. Not when he knew what she was afraid of and knew that fear so well himself.

His hand found hers once more, his thumb running comfortingly over the back of it, his knuckles still bruised and raw. 

“Kumiko,” he breathed her name, voice as gentle as it has been under the dim light of that dance club, asking if she was “arranged.” There was a flicker of hesitance, perhaps even fear, behind his eyes but they still shone warm with understanding all the same. “Do you still _want_ to come with me?”

_What is it_ **_you_ ** _want?_ he was asking her. 

Kumiko’s lips pressed into a thin line. 

The first time her world had gone up in flames, she hadn’t wanted that. But this was different. This was a chance to chase her dream and she could choose this. She could choose her dream and she could choose him.

“I do,” she assured him, holding his gaze. “Very much. I am just...scared.” She looked away, ashamed. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t-”

“Hey, you don’t have to apologize,” he interrupted gently. “It’s okay to be scared. I am too. I’ve never been all that great with change either.” 

He shifted so that he could look her in the eye properly. “But when I met Mr. Miyagi, I learned that when you have the right people to help you figure things out, you can take on a lot more than you thought you could.” 

He slipped his palm into hers, cradling her hand. “I know you’re scared but you won’t have to be alone. You’ll have your aunt, and Mr. Miyagi-” the corner of his lip quirked up in an impish smile as he reached up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear- “and you’ve always got me.”

The ache in her chest returned tenfold, engulfing her heart like a flame. Only this time, it burned entirely blissful and ardent, like a warm hearth settled in her core.

She kissed him then, soft and sweet, her hands cupping his jaw and his fingers tangling in her hair. It was like a dance, meeting and parting, catching one another in perfect sync, because this, she realized, is how it always was with him; exhilarating and breathless and yet the safest feeling she’s ever known.

Eventually, she pulled away, beaming with moonlight dancing in her eyes, observing her joy reflected in his.

She nestled her head against his shoulder once more as she delicately laced their hands together in her lap, looking out once more over the garden, over the expanse of Pacific Ocean that would take her places she could once only reach in her dreams, to all there was to come.

“We’ve got this,” he whispered, placing a kiss to the top of her head.

Kumiko smiled, her grip tightening around his. “We do.”

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been wrestling with a nasty case of writer's block lately, but it made me so unbelievably happy to see these two on-screen together again that I had to push through and do a little something for them. 
> 
> I don’t really know if there’s anyone else out there still aboard this ship, so consider this a *cups hands over mouth and calls out into the void* “Hello! Is anybody here?”
> 
> Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome. Thank you so so much for reading <3


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